Literacy Autobiography Guide

Literacy Autobiography Reading and writing have never been my forte. Various barriers kept me from enjoying these activities as a child which ultimately carried over into my young adult life. A few experiences in high school taught me to enjoy reading and writing a little more, but then in I college hit and I was at a roadblock again. Even though reading may not be my favorite pastime, over the years I’ve learned to be a proficient reader and writer through trial and error, the help of my teachers and professors, and most importantly through hard work. Aside from being diagnosed with ADHD at a young age, I also had a speech impediment which made it difficult for almost everyone to understand me. My older sister, Rowen, used to be my own personal translator until I started elementary school. Once I started my education, it was noticed that my speech impairment wasn’t improving. The school then found it necessary to have me see a speech pathologist to help me pronounce sounds and words such as my own last name correctly. I enjoyed these sessions because I was taken out of class but it was moderately contradicting since the class I was removed from was always Language Arts. After working with someone for several years, my impediment has nearly disappeared. Growing up with four brothers gave me no option but to be an active tomboy. I liked playing in the dirt and riding bikes outside more than I enjoyed reading a book by myself. Apart from enjoying being active, it was also hard to concentrate when I did have to read because there was always commotion going on through the house. There were a select few books I remember being interested in such as Captain Underpants and The Magic Tree House. Although they weren’t highly educational books, they still showed me that I was able to enjoy reading. With one step forward and two steps back, I was constantly reminded of how I disliked reading much more than I enjoyed it. My mother was a Jehovah’s Witness and made us attend 3 religious meetings a week. Before each meeting, we would sit around the dining room table and review the text we were going to cover that night. I was never fond of the religion’s beliefs or its practices, which lead me to a disinterest in the texts we discussed. Although I may not have enjoyed the context, doing this made me a better note taker. I became familiar with picking out key details and learned how to further discuss topics drawn from a text. I think the practice of this religion was more detrimental to my reading career more than it was encouraging. I had school 5 days a week, and then on Tuesday and Thursday I would get home and finish homework so I could start studying for the meeting that night. After about an hour of studying, we would then go to the 2-3 hour meeting. We also had 3 hour meetings on Sunday mornings. Aside from meetings at the Kingdom Hall, my mother also had me go to study sessions with a sweet old lady named Sister Weiss. Although she was nice, I was too antsy and energetic to go straight from sitting at school all day to sitting in a living room for the next two hours reading a story from the Bible. After years of practicing this religion, I may have taken away note-taking skills, but it also made me stigmatize all readings to be dreadful. It wasn’t until years later in high school when I voluntarily picked up a book again. My first class as a new freshman in high school was an English course taught by a teacher named Ms. Stinefelt. Although I was always proficient in English classes, this was the first English class I ever truly enjoyed. I never liked history courses because of the constant readings, but I found the content of this class, like the Holocaust, very interesting. After having such a helpful and caring teacher for two years straight, I decided I wanted her as a teacher again but learned that she only taught English to grades 9 and 10. The only other way I could have her as my teacher again was if I took the elective course she taught, Yearbook. I am beyond grateful she got me interested in the literary world of Yearbook Class because I watched myself excel. She had a beginner and advanced section for her yearbook staff. As a beginner in my Junior year, she administered short quizzes or warm ups in the beginning of each class. These warm ups were direct and quick and they helped reinforce the rules of English wish I had learned and forgotten years prior. I learned how to conduct interviews and how to write an article about assigned topics. My Senior year, I was promoted to the Yearbook Crew’s Photo Editor position. Although I was a stronger photographer than writer, I still had several pages like sports and holidays that I was assigned to complete on my own. I remember struggling from time to time to figure out what to write on a particular topic that I wasn't highly experienced it, which led me to do extra research on topics so I could do them justice as I covered them. This fun experience with a group of peers showed me that with the right attitude on your topic, anything from writing about it to doing research can be educational yet fun. Overall, I think my few unanticipated years working on the Hereford Pioneer advanced my literary capabilities in ways that’ll stick with me throughout the rest of my life. Once college begun, I was reminded of what a pain reading can be, yet again. The excessive amounts of textbook pages that were assigned from several boring core classes led me to hold a minor resentment towards reading. After some time adjusting, I learned a few tools to use to make reading and retaining the information easier. I did this through conversing with peers and asking for their techniques. In my Junior year, American Literature stumped me again. The entire class was based of off readings done at home, in class discussions, a few pop quizzes, and 3 exams. This worried me because if I couldn’t effectively read and understand the various readings assigned at the rate the class was going, I surely wasn’t going to pass the essay exams. I started off the class with a decent level of stress that wasn’t resolved until I received my final grade. I completed all of the readings and attended every discussion and thought I had a grip on the content until I received a low C on my first exam. I was disappointed because I had done the work assigned and was still earning a lower grade than what I was happy with. I realized I needed to take more time learning how to analyze a text rather than summarizing it. After office hours and outside research on the assigned readings, I earned a B on the second exam administered. Feeling proud of the extra work paying off, I continued to work even harder for the last exam. With hours of rereading content, highlighting entire books, office hours, and extra research, I passed the last exam with an A+. This course not only taught me how to analyze short and long texts ranging from autobiographies to fictional stories in depth, but it also showed me to not give up on something just because your initial experience is difficult. Throughout my years in education, I have discovered many personal difficulties regarding writing and primarily reading. Starting with my ADHD and speech impediment, I knew I would have to put in more effort than others in order to read and understand a text proficiently. With numerous discouraging and also encouraging experiences that I’ve faced in the last several years, I can admit reading is still not my favorite hobby. More importantly, I have also learned that just because one faces setbacks, doesn’t mean the goal isn't achievable.